


One for the Money, Two for the Road

by UndertaleThingem



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: All of the Fluff!, And if there's anything that can motivate him it's making Papyrus happy, Fluff, Gen, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Sans is a good brother, So here we are, just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8557012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndertaleThingem/pseuds/UndertaleThingem
Summary: Monsters have finally reached the surface, where all their dreams can come true.Sans is going to make sure at least one of those dreams is his brother's--the one involving a shiny red sportscar.Provided he can afford it.





	

“i want to get my brother a car.”

Sans sat with his hands tented in his lap, giving the lady sitting across from him what he hoped was a serious—but not frightening—expression. No one else at the bank had really known how to handle him; they were technically still negotiating peace talks with the human government and getting their rights and citizenship legally recognized. Luckily it was mostly a matter of bureaucracy, and the lady—some kind of manager and so genuine in her enthusiasm he’d instantly had a good feeling about her—hadn’t hesitated to meet with him once she’d learned of his visit. She furrowed her brow as she considered his words, then nodded.

“Okay, we can definitely help you with that. Did… do monsters have a loan process?”

“yeah, though it’s probably kinda different from yours. we still mostly use coins, for one,” Sans explained with a shrug. “i dunno what the conversion rate is but i was hoping this’d be a start.”

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small bag. It had maybe been a pillowcase once, and had seen better days, but it held most of his savings and as such he treated it with a respect very few of his other belongings enjoyed. He leaned over the desk and emptied the bag’s contents onto it, gleaming yellow coins clinking onto the laminated wood. The lady stared as he poured them out, and he couldn’t help but chuckle at her expression. Maybe she’d never seen gold before.

“there, should be about 900 gold there. probably not enough to cover the whole car, but, it’s gotta be a decent start, right?”

“… This is your currency?” the lady stated incredulously, waving a hand over the pile.

“um, yeah? you got a problem with it?” Sans challenged playfully, and she made a face as she shook her head.

“No, actually, this is fine. We just need to get it appraised to determine its material value, if any, and we’ll go from there. It’ll be just a moment,” she explained, counting out ten of the coins and heading off to elsewhere in the bank. Sans drummed his digits on his knee, wondering if he could take a quick nap in between when the lady had left and when she’d get back. How long did appraisals take, anyway? It was all solid, genuine gold, that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out, right?

Footsteps meandered their way into his dozing, and he blinked and sat up just as the lady returned, gold and a slip of paper in her hand. She sat down, and judging by the look on her face she’d just found out something incredible.

“Mr…. Sans, was it?” she began, and he shrugged. “Well, I have some very exciting news for you. Our assessor was stunned to learn monsters use solid, 24-carat gold for something as mundane as money; human society hasn’t done that for centuries. At current conversion rates, and with the amount of gold you’ve brought today… you could easily buy your brother at least twenty cars. Nice ones.”

Sans stared, processing her verdict. “…you mean to tell me… we’re rich.”

“Well… yes,” the lady said with a smile.

Sans clasped his hands in front of his jaw, eyes darting here and there as the news continued to sink in. “and here i’ve always been savin’ up in the hopes i might scrape by, worried about rent and how i’m gonna afford my bro’s spaghetti budget over the years… and we’re rich?”

“Yep—well, at least in the human market. We can still set up a loan for you on the car, but frankly, you don’t need it.”

“you’re serious about this? you’re not just pulling my leg bones here?”

She laughed, and shook her head. “No, I am not. If you’re smart with your finances, you’ll be living quite comfortably for a long time. And if all monsters have money like this, then they’ll be well-off too. I hope it makes adjusting to your new lives a little easier, I’ve been excited for you all ever since I saw the news.”

“… heh…. y’know, i think it’s gonna be a weight off everyone’s backs,” Sans replied simply. This was still almost too much to think about, but reality was setting in. He could get Papyrus anything he wanted, the car and then some, and still have a lot left over. He could probably even set things up so Papyrus never had to worry about finances again.

“It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? I can only imagine what seeing a whole world is like for monsters,” the lady smiled, obviously happy for him. “But back to business. We can get started with setting up an account for you now if you’d like? Most places won’t accept pure gold, but cash or credit works everywhere.”

And so, a few hours later, Sans had everything he needed to buy a car outright. Now it was a matter of getting the one Papyrus had picked out when they’d done a little window shopping, the one he’d fawned and cooed over and trailed gloved fingers longingly over as they left. His brother’s dream car.

Which was nothing short of the shiniest, sleekest hot red convertible Sans had ever seen.

He couldn’t wait to see the look on his face; it would probably match the one he’d had when they’d finally gotten his racecar bed out of the dump. Papyrus had carried the dingy thing proudly over his head until they were home, swiftly scrubbed it clean and made it up, all while wearing the biggest grin and shiniest eyes Sans had ever seen on him. It had been a decidedly bright day out of all the countless dark ones, and he wondered if getting a real car would let Papyrus’ smile rival the sun. Well, it already did, but Sans knew this would bring it to unprecedented levels. He couldn’t wait.

“Sans! I’ve returned from being adored as I rightly deserve! But no one told me being a mascot is so hectic!” Papyrus boomed as he entered and set his things neatly by the table in their small apartment. "One human tried to enthusiastically hug me from a running start. Alphys informed me it’s called a ‘glomp’ and is a sign of affection, and surely had I not already been used to Undyne’s methods I’d have been caught completely off guard!!”

“sounds like you had fun bro,” Sans commented from the couch. Outwardly he looked as calm as always, but inside his soul buzzed with an energy he hadn’t felt in a long time. Behind the apartment complex where the bolder members of monster kind had been temporarily housed, there was a garage, and in that garage was something special.

“It was! Well, some of it wasn’t. The meeting with yet another human committee dragged on for quite some time, it was rather dull, though the human certainly spiced things up with some flirting.”

“wow, sounds like things were pretty heated,” Sans joked, and his brother snorted.

“You could say that! You could also say… they were getting a little Frisky! Nyeh heh heh!”

“yup, our little dating fiend,” Sans chuckled fondly. “the world’s lucky they’re not serious about any of it… yet.”

“I don’t know! Our date was quite intense, and for the first time ever I was nearly bested!” Papyrus mused, coming to sit with him on the couch. “They seemed quite serious about it to me.”

“well, neither you or the kid do stuff by halves. go hard or go home, y’know? though, i always pick ‘go home’.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Papyrus huffed. “I expect you did nothing, as usual?”

“yup, a whole lot of nothing. a pretty productive day if you ask me. which you did.”

“This is why I don’t ask you things!” Papyrus blustered, storming from the couch—though it was all melodramatics.

“you should see the nothing i did,” Sans called after his brother, rising himself, and Papyrus peeked out from the doorway leading to the kitchen, looking extremely skeptical.

“You can’t see nothing! That’s the point!”

“oh sure, well, you’ll definitely see nothing if you don’t follow me out.”

Papyrus’ skeptical expression deepened to outright disbelief while he headed for the door. He stepped outside, closed it behind him, and started down the plain hall, mentally counting. Five… four… three…

“Sans! Get back here, I’m not following you on a wild goose chase that will undoubtedly end in some prank!” Papyrus shouted after him. He’d been quick on the uptake, he must be really curious.

“goose chases aren’t all they’re quacked up to be anyway,” Sans replied, spinning on his heels in time to catch his brother’s scowl. “this is way better, though i guess it still honks.”

Papyrus groaned, but quickly caught up to him. “Okay, but let’s get it over with.”

They headed outside into the sunlight, something that still took some getting used to. The sky had just started to turn orange in the west, and though it was too early Sans found himself scanning the sky eagerly. Nothing had compared to that first night, when no one had figured out how to contact the humans yet so they camped out on the mountainside, and seen the stars—the real ones, not bits of crystal embedded in cavern walls—glittering in broad swaths overhead. But for now he was more interested in seeing something else, and he turned his attention to unlocking the side door into the garage.

“ok bro, wait out here and stand right in front of the big door.”

“What are you plotting, Sans?” Papyrus asked, eyes narrowed and hands planted on his hips. But he listened, moving to stand directly before the door.

“ok, now cover your eyes.”

“Um…? Okay?”

He followed through, and Sans hit the button to raise the door. It rose with a tired mechanical hum, and Sans took a shortcut to stand next to his brother for the reveal. Before it finished retracting, he nudged him to uncover his eyes, and what happened next made all the extra effort and work of the day worth it.

Papyrus stared for a moment. “Sans, you opened the wrong garage.”

“nah, i double-checked. this is ours.”

“Then triple-check!”

“i quadruple-checked it, actually. we’re definitely in the right place.”

“Then someone has parked this very fine vehicle in here by mistake. We must inform them at once! No one should be apart from such a stunning piece of machinery for long!”

“so go sit in the seat.”

Papyrus turned sharply to him, and he just smiled back and held up the keys. Already attached to a plastic bone keychain, there was no mistaking who they belonged to as they glinted enticingly in the evening sunlight. Papyrus worked his jaw, sometimes making noises that might have been words but apparently weren’t the right ones. He eventually settled for gaping as he stared at the car, taking it all in, but Sans knew the best part hadn’t even happened yet.

Upon realizing this shiny new car was really his, he screamed with joy. Papyrus was already given to speaking loudly, so when he decided to properly yell, it was the sort of sound that deafened anyone who stood too closely. Sans was used to it (on top of not actually having ears to hurt), but he hoped none of the neighbors were too concerned as a flock of birds scattered overhead. He watched with a broad grin as his brother danced around the convertible, viewing it from every angle and moving so fast he could have been mistaken for taking a few ‘shortcuts’ of his own, yammering about how wonderful it was all the while. This was what he’d been waiting for: his brother, overjoyed beyond belief.

Arms suddenly wrapped around and lifted him bodily into a tight hug. Papyrus buried his face in his shoulder, and he patted him gently as he realized he was sobbing softly.

“whoa bro, everything ok?”

“I’m just so happy Sans,” Papyrus murmured into his hoodie. “I always thought this would just be a dream, but now it’s happening? I have a car, a fancy, beautiful car. You went through all this trouble, b-but you didn’t have to, it’s not even my birthday, or Gyftmas, or any other conceivable day on which presents are presented, and—and how did you even afford this?!”

“aw, paps… heh, well, as it turns out, humans _really_ like gold. it was a cinch,” Sans explained. His brother didn’t need the full story just yet. “and as for the occasion… eh, just thought it’d be nice. we’re finally on the surface, where we can get this kinda thing… so why not, y’know?”

Papyrus hugged him just a bit tighter. “Yes, we are brother. I suppose that’s occasion enough.”

“heh, yeah. that’s perfect bro.”

Papyrus set him down, but wasn’t ready to let go. “Thank you Sans. My true feelings cannot be expressed in mere words, but they’re all we have, so… I’ll cherish this forever and I can’t believe you did this for me! Because! You hardly do anything! And it drives me to the end of my rope but I wouldn’t change it for the world, because you are the best brother in the world and I am so glad! As a thank you for this incredible gesture, you are invited to the exclusive first ride in my car!”

“aw… thanks, paps. you’re the best brother in the world too,” Sans replied, scrubbing a socket with his free hand. “and that ride’ll be great, but…”

“But? But what?” Papyrus asked, pulling back to give him a worried look.

“but it’s gonna have to wait until you know how to drive.”

Papyrus’s gaze fell to the ground. “Ah. Right. That would be a problem. But not one the Great Papyrus can’t solve! Come on Sans, the open road awaits!”

Sans laughed to himself as his brother swept him up and tucked him under his arm to dash off down the street. He didn’t have the heart to tell him the place that oversaw licensing was in the opposite direction as well as closed for the day—it wouldn’t dampen his spirits much but Sans wasn’t about to be the bearer of bad news. As they flew through the city suburbs, he mentally congratulated himself on a job well done, and took one last glance upwards before he let himself drift to sleep.

Sans could easily sleep in the full glare of the sun, but he slept even better in the light of his brother’s smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I love writing skelebro fluff and I can promise there'll be more in the future, and I want to do things with other characters too--I just have more ideas for our favorite brothers. 
> 
> Here's a fun little story from while I worked on this: when I wrote that Papyrus' skepticism turned to outright disbelief, I cracked up, because the context is extremely different from what's usually happening when the words 'Papyrus' and 'Disbelief' are associated in this fandom.
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!


End file.
